


My thoughts on: Richie comforting Eddie when he feels insecure

by bimmyshrug



Series: Tumblr Prompts [6]
Category: IT (1990), IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eating Disorders, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, Fat Shaming, Insecurity, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Teenage Losers Club (IT)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24213283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bimmyshrug/pseuds/bimmyshrug
Summary: Part of my tumblr prompts series.Anon asked: I'm such a slut for one character reassuring the other characters physical insecurities so,,if Eddie is feeling extremely insecure one day, maybe his mum or a bully from school said something to him about his weight or general looks, and then he asked richie if he thinks Eddie is unattractive what would richie's response be? CAU and OO richie please
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: Tumblr Prompts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1747585
Comments: 2
Kudos: 148





	My thoughts on: Richie comforting Eddie when he feels insecure

**Author's Note:**

> [ Come send me more stuff to write about on Tumblr ](https://bimmyshrug.tumblr.com/)
> 
> This is based off of my fics "Osculum Obscenum" and my Catholic AU.   
> I’m gonna do this for when they’re in middle school.

Catholic AU:

Eddie’s mom has always harped on Eddie about his weight, which Richie’s never really understood, considering. Regardless, he knows it’s something that Eddie struggles with, especially now that everyone else has started going through puberty, and Eddie hasn’t yet. He’s still got his baby fat and his round face, which Richie finds adorable, but he knows it gets to him. He knows he watches everything he eats because of his mother making comments like “You’re looking a little full in the face, Eddie-bear.” Seemingly harmless, but hurtful when she does it every day.

So Richie knows when Eddie is having a hard time because he’ll nibble at half of a sandwich before shoving the rest of his lunch sack over to Richie without saying anything. And at first, Richie doesn’t read into it too much, and is more happy to have the extra lunch, than anything. But then he starts to realize that it’s often coupled with Eddie wearing baggier clothes than normal, and it fully clicks one day when Richie picks him up to spin him around, and Eddie screeches at Richie to put him down, _now,_ and grumbles something under his breath about Richie hurting himself if he keeps trying to lift Eddie up like that.

Richie thinks of making a joke about how Eddie is tiny, or how he weighs, like, _10 pounds, Eds; I’m not that weak, jeeze._ But something in Eddie’s expression tells him that it isn’t the time.

And Richie knows he’s not very good at being comforting, and he tends to say the wrong things a lot, so he starts writing Eddie little notes. Sometimes they’re about how he looks, but most of the time, they’re about all of the other things Richie likes about him.

_You look really cute today. Like, cuter than usual._

_The color of your eyes kinda reminds me of those candies. The really good caramel ones with the chocolate in the middle? Those ones._

_I can’t say this out loud because it would be like admitting defeat, but you’re, like, the funniest person I know, Eds. For real. But if you tell anyone I said that I’ll deny it to my grave._

_Being around you makes me happier than anything else in the world. Including streetfighter._

_You’re my best friend. Always. You’re trapped with me forever._

Eddie usually rolls his eyes when Richie passes the notes to him, but when he watches Eddie read them out of the corner of his eye, he’s usually biting back a smile, or sometimes, he’ll even giggle to himself really softly. And Richie isn’t sure it’s even helping at first, but he figures that if Eddie’s mom makes him feel bad about himself, Richie can at least remind him of all the things he should feel good about.

Eddie seems happier, after a while. And he starts to expect the notes, though he doesn’t ever say it. But he’ll linger in the hallways with Richie between classes until Richie reaches into his back pocket and slips a small piece of paper into Eddie’s palm, and Eddie will smile up at him before running off to his next class. And that’s thank you enough to Richie, so getting notes back feels like fucking Christmas.

_You look like less of a mess today than usual, but honestly, it’s sort of weird. I think I like it better when your outfits hurt my eyes._

_Your eyes kinda look like blue jolly ranchers. Or like the blue raspberry slushies at 711? Like those on the outside but darker in the middle. Like when you mix the grape and blue raspberry together._

_Most of the times your jokes are so bad I want to scream, but that one you told about Reagan at lunch today was pretty funny. I’m definitely funnier than you though._

_I feel bad because I wish we were alone sometimes when we’re with everybody else. Not because I don’t love being around them too or anything. I just like being alone with you._

_You’re my best friend too, Richie. I’m cool with being trapped with you forever, if that’s your master plan._

Richie can’t tell if the notes are even helping, despite having his suspicions that they are. He can’t say for sure until one day when Eddie is sick, and he asks Richie to bring his missed work to his house after school. So Richie opens Eddie’s locker to grab his books, and the first thing he sees is a little pile of wrinkled papers, all stacked up neatly on the top shelf of his locker.

He’s confused at first, until he recognizes his own handwriting on one of them, and then he realizes that Eddie has been keeping his notes. And that feels really, really good, especially because Richie has his own stash of Eddie’s responses in his desk drawer at home. And if Eddie is keeping them, maybe that means they make him as happy as his notes back make Richie feel. And that makes Richie smile the whole time he’s riding his bike to Eddie’s house, thinking about if he’ll ever give Eddie the note he really wants to, the one he wrote into the sketchbook that he keeps under his bed.

_I really like you, Eddie. More than as a friend. And it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way, I just wanted to tell you. I hope we can still be friends, even if you don’t like me back. Because you’re the coolest person I know, and I really like everything about you, even if I make fun of you sometimes. You’re the best, Eds. The best friend I’ll ever have._

Osculum Obscenum:

Sonia has picked random shit to bitch at Eddie about for his entire fucking life, but for whatever fucking reason, she decides that he’s fat when he turns 13.

The idea of Sonia having the nerve to call Eddie fat pisses Richie off so much that his head fucking hurts when he thinks about it, so at first, he amps up his mom jokes, because he figures they can laugh at her if she’s gonna shit all over Eddie.

“Hey Eds, I’m thinking of taking up sailing! Even started building a boat. Can you ask your mom if I can borrow a pair of her panties for the sail?”

“I’m pretty sure if your mom jumped up into the air, the force of her body slamming back down onto the ground would cause an earthquake and crack the whole town in half. We’d all probably die, Eds.”

“Fucking your mom is great because I don’t even have to pull out, I can just fuck one of her fat rolls instead. Kinda hard to tell the difference anyway, her pussy gets lost in all that blubber.”

Eddie just tells him to shut up, like he always does, so Richie figures it’s not making things worse, at least. Not until one day, when he’s expecting a “Shut the fuck up, Richie!” and instead gets “Richie, just stop, okay?”

And it’s very unlike Eddie to resort to something adjacent to pleading so easily, so Richie figures he pushed too far. He dials it back 30% with the mom jokes because Eddie seems really fucked up over the shit she says to him. He doesn’t eat at lunch anymore, and Richie wants to ask him why in front of the rest of their friends at the lunch table, but he figures it can wait until he can drag Eddie under the stairwell with him after they leave, which is exactly what he does.

“Why the fuck aren’t you eating?”

“Not hungry.”

“Ever? Bull fucking shit, Eds. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing, Richie.”

“Is this because of that shit your mom said?”

“None of your business.”

“You’re not fucking fat, Eddie.”

“Fatter than you.”

“No, you’re not. There’s a difference between being fat and not hitting puberty yet, Eds.”

“Don’t fucking make fun of me right now, Richie.”

“I’m not making fun of you, for fuck’s sake! I’m saying you’re not fat, and you shouldn’t be fucking starving yourself because your mom is a stupid hypocritical bitch.”

“Whatever, I have to go to class.”

“No, not whatever, don’t fucking walk away from me. You need to eat, Eddie.”

“I will when I go home.”

“Bullshit, you need to eat now.”

“I can’t. I threw my lunch away.”

“Eddie, for fuck’s sake.”

“I have to go to class now, Rich.”

Richie lets it go because he has to, but after he and Eddie ride their bikes to Richie’s house after school, he makes a sandwich and grabs a bag of chips to bring upstairs to Eddie in his room. Eddie makes a face from where he’s seated on Richie’s bed as soon as he opens the door, and Richie marches right over to his bed to place the sandwich in Eddie’s lap.

“I don’t like bologna.”

“It’s ham.”

“I don’t like ham, either.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Double bullshit.”

“Richie-”

“Just eat the god damn sandwich, Eddie, before you waste away to fucking nothing.”

“Come on, Rich.”

“Eddie, please. Can you please just eat half? Please?”

Eddie looks at him wide-eyed for a moment, but ultimately, he picks up the sandwich and starts to eat it. He eats a little over half before he stops, and it’s not preferable, but Richie will take it, for now.

It becomes a routine after that. Eddie doesn’t eat at school, and after school, Richie will make them a sandwich to split, and they’ll split a bag of chips, too. And it’s not great still, but it’s better than nothing, which is what Richie is pretty sure Eddie is eating at home.

He feels okay with their routine for a while, until one night, Eddie calls his house right as he’s getting ready to go to bed. He’s pissed off at first that someone is calling so late at night, but he softens as soon as he hears Eddie’s voice.

“What’s wrong, Eds?”

“Can you come over? Please?”

“Make sure your window is unlocked, be there in 5.”

Richie tugs a jacket and boots on along with his flannel pajama pants and old t shirt, because it’s raining outside. His hair is nearly soaked and he can’t see through the mess on his glasses by the time he’s climbing through Eddie’s window.

Eddie immediately reaches for his glasses to clean them off, and Richie can tell he’s fretting even through his blurry vision.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry; I didn’t realize it’s raining outside.”

“It’s cool. I like the rain. Means I don’t have to take a shower this week.”

“You’re gross.”

“Yep, move over.”

Eddie curls right into his side as soon as Richie lies down next to him, and he’s trying to figure out what to say as he brushes his fingers through Eddie’s hair. He knows something must have happened for Eddie to have asked him to come over so late on a school night. He doesn’t have the time to figure it out before Eddie speaks first.

“Do you think I’m, like… ugly?”

“What?”

“S-Sorry, I didn’t- sorry. Never mind.”

“Who the fuck told you that you’re ugly?”

“Nobody, just fucking forget it.”

“Eddie, I don’t give a fuck what your mom is telling you; you’re not fat, and you’re not ugly, okay? You’re fucking not.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Bullshit.”

“Eddie, I’ve thought that you’re pretty since the day we fucking met.”

“Richie, don’t be a fucking dick.”

“How am I being a dick?”

“I’m a boy, don’t call me pretty.”

“You are pretty, though. I don’t mean you’re a fucking girl, I mean you’re _pretty._ You have pretty eyes and pretty hair and pretty skin. You’re fucking pretty. I donno how else to explain it than that. But I mean it as a good thing, Eds. I think you’re really pretty.”

“Pretty like Greta is pretty?”

“Definitely prettier than Greta.”

“Pretty like Bev?”

“Prettier than her, too. But don’t fucking tell her I said that.”

“Well…. well do you think I’ll always be pretty? Or do you think I’ll change once I hit puberty?”

“I think you’ll always be pretty, Eds. For sure.”

“Oh.”

“It’s a _good thing._ You’re so cute, I just want to fucking squeeze you until all your filling comes out.”

“I don’t want to be cute, or pretty. I want to be handsome.”

“Why cant you be all three?”

Eddie doesn’t respond, and Richie considers pushing the issue, because he isnt sure if Eddie is upset or not. But as he’s considering what he should say again, Eddie snuggles in closer to his chest, and wraps his little arms around Richie’s middle before tucking his head up under Richie’s chin.

“Thanks for coming, Rich.”

“Anything for you, Eddie my love.”

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda just pick which asks I decide I want to expand on and go from there, but if you specifically request that I write a drabble or a ficlet based off of your ask, I will (it might take me some time bc I have a lot going on but I'll do it eventually).


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